Some of these scientists have decided that this effect should be studied, instead of just being thought of as a “statistical distraction,” as many pharmaceutical companies may have considered them.

So, back to the original question: why do placebos work? Silberman says, “The precise nature of the placebo effect is shaped largely by patients’ expectations.”

To me, it sounds like the mental nature of health is now being observed in these clinical trials. This is intriguing, and I’m interested to see that these scientists are drilling deeper into what’s behind cause and effect with placebos. Another finding is that the level of support and confidence a health care provider has with the patient and his or her situation has an effect on healing.

Why would a supportive environment matter if there wasn’t a mental nature to health? It wouldn’t. And why would patients’ expectations matter either? I’m looking forward to seeing what these scientists find next.

In a recent “Other Voices” column, my West Coast colleague Eric Nelson in Northern California tracked down an amazingly cool video on the placebo effect, that I share below. He introduced it by saying:

Have a look at the video below (very entertaining, by the way!). And for some insight into the Christian Science “take” on placebos, check out this “oldie but goodie” article from the Christian Science Sentinel.

At the same time an East Coast friend sent me notice of an article on nocebos – the darker twin of the positive placebo.

Told that a powerful painkiller would not bring relief, subjects in a new study from Oxford University felt the “nocebo” effect – as much pain as if they hadn’t been given the drug at all.” Lead researcher Irene Tracey was quoted as saying “We not only overrode all the goodness of the positive expectation, we overrode the goodness of the drug itself.

To which one might gently add the query…is it possible that such experiments are probing and proving whether all the effects that drugs appear to have might in fact be attributable to the impact that educated belief has on the body?

This kind of research is really important, and all kudos to Dr. Tracey and her team for pursuing this angle with an open mind and for frankly reporting the results that they got. Whether they know it or not, such scientists would find a kindred spirit in the “discoverer” of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. Back in the late nineteenth century she was experimenting with placebos and uncovered the effects of nocebos – even though she didn’t coin those names for the positive and negative effects of the beliefs which, respectively, she identified and warned against.

In a 2010 Associated Press article called Placebo treatments stronger than doctors thought by Maria Cheng – AP Medical Writer – psychologist Linda Blair, spokeswoman for the British Psychological Society, identified the power of belief on the body, when she said:

It’s not that placebos or inert substances help, it’s that people’s belief in inert substances help.

As Eric commented after watching the videos shared above, it reminded him of what Mary Baker Eddy concluded after her own experiments with what she referred to as “unmedicated pellets”:

The prescription which succeeds in one instance fails in another, and this is owing to the different mental states of the patient. These states are not comprehended, and they are left without explanation except in Christian Science.”(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 149)’

That is, they require to be understood in the light of a divine Science which explains the different effects of matter-oriented and Spirit-oriented thought on minds and bodies. Such an explanation can be found in a chapter called Physiology in Eddy’s Science and Health.

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Author:Tony Lobl

I write on spirituality and health for a diversity of online media outlets, from my perspective as a Christian Science practitioner. I have been published by the Independent, the Washington Post, the Guardian, E-Hospice, MindBodyGreen and The Christian Science Monitor and I post regularly on the Huffington Post UK and BuzzFeed. In addition to writing and broadcast appearances I enjoy engaging with journalists, academics, health professionals and government officials about the possibilities for improving health outcomes through a greater emphasis on spirituality in healthcare and social care. I've also greatly valued the many opportunities I have had to travel globally for my church and to meet people around the world. My wife Jenny and I spent 10 years in Boston, USA, before returning to London in 2002, to take on a role as the media and legislative liaison for Christian Science in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
I studied at the University of Surrey earning a BSc Hons Degree in Modern Mathematics before the impact of spirituality on health caught my attention and re-shaped my career.

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